Owls win 73-65.

No FGs for the Owls in the last 6:57, but Owls manage to pull away on FTs.

Rice 73 - 65 final, as we hit our FTs down the stretch, mostly by Nancy and Sydni.
Starters all played virtually the whole game, but balanced scoring...

Erica: 18 points, 12 boards, 2 assists, 2 blocks (but 7 TOs)
Schwartz: 21 points, 4 boards, 2 steals
Wiggins: 17 points
Mulkey: 10 points, 5 boards, 4 blocks
Smith: 5 points, 4 boards, 7 assists

How is Mulkey doing in rebounds versus last year this time of year?

(01-04-2020 05:46 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  How is Mulkey doing in rebounds versus last year this time of the year?

Last year she couldn't rebound at all because of her wrist injury. Not a fair comparison. Last 2 games she's been a bit more active off the boards, but prior to that she was only getting 2 - 3 rebounds per game....and that's inexplicable given her height advantage.

I am surprised McCurry is not getting more minutes. She seems more mobile and aggresive then Mulkey. Maybe her shooting is suspect but she looked pretty active against Marshall.

(01-04-2020 05:54 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  I am surprised McCurry is not getting more minutes. She seems more mobile and aggresive then Mulkey. Maybe her shooting is suspect but she looked pretty active against Marshall.

I trust Tina's judgement with regards to playing time.

If Middle Tennessee can beat Charlotte at home later tonight, Rice and UTEP will be atop the conference after 1 week with 2-0 records. Marshall, who looked horrible against us the other night, just beat UNT by 9 on the road.

Honestly, we're playing two of the worst teams in the conference on the road next week. Maybe the UTEP road game will be tougher than I thought, but I really don't think we'll see the toughest part of our schedule for another month (the four game stretch vs UAB and MTSU at home, and then at ODU and Charlotte).

From the games I watched on tv/pc, Mulkey looked pretty terrible at blocking out, which explains her relative lack of rebounds given her size. Perhaps she is just so tall that other players can step under her? Other teams also seem to try to pull her out of the high post on defense a good bit which reduces her impact to block shots in the key and puts her in a worse position for rebounding.

On a plus side Schwartz has been phenomenal. She could be even better then Erica. Wiggins is hitting now which helps greatly.

(01-05-2020 07:25 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  On a plus side Schwartz has been phenomenal. She could be even better then Erica. Wiggins is hitting now which helps greatly.

Wiggins was a terrific scorer in high school. Her issue has not been not hitting, but lack of confidence in taking the shot. The past couple years she has repeatedly passed up wide-open looks. It had allowed opposing defenses to slack off a bit on defending both Sydni and Smith, thereby, enabling them to double up on Erica and Nancy. If Sydni starts to consistently take 6 - 8 shots per game it will open things up a bit for Erica and now Schwartz.